The modern automobile is equipped with many active safety systems, from seat belt tensioners, to air bags and fuel cutoff valves. To properly trigger the activation of the various active safety systems, crash sensors are used to detect the onset of a crash and to determine the severity of a crash. To optimize the use of active safety systems it is important to know as soon as possible the likely severity of the crash. Better results can be achieved by early detection of crash severity and early deployment of active safety systems. At the same time, considerable cost can be saved if safety systems are not deployed in less severe crashes where passive restraints such a seat belts are likely to be sufficient to prevent serious injury. As automobiles employ larger numbers of air bags and other deployable safety systems, the cost of replacing deployed safety systems becomes a considerable portion of the cost of repairs following a crash. Of course, in a severe crash, when deployment of all safety systems is desired, the automobile may have little residual value due to the extensive damage caused by the crash. This tension between the benefits of early deployment versus the cost of unnecessary deployment focuses attention on sensors that can give an indication of crash severity early in a crash. One type of known shock sensor that employs the inverse magnetostrictive effect or the Villari effect, can detect shock waves in ferrous structural members. Shock waves can be signal processed to give an indicator of crash severity early in the crash sequence. However, the ability to detect shock waves in non-ferrous structural members, and a sensor having a larger output voltage are desirable to increase the utility of sensors that detect shock waves in structural members an automobile during a crash.